Hi Pam

[kodak]

I was wondering what you think about keeping larger fish such as Nimbochromis Livingstonii 7" W/F, Nimbochromis Venustus 7" W/F, Dimidochromis Strigatus 7", Red Empress 8", Red Empress 7" W/F, Red Empress 5", Iceberg Ahli 7" W/4F ,Champsochromis C. 4", Yellow Lab. 4" W/2F,( 2 Taiwan reef juvi, 1 Ahli juvi, 2 Yellow lab. juvi's, Blue zebra 3",Nimbochromis Fusc. 3". The tank is 130g, 6' long 2' deep 18" wide. With some large boulders sand substrate and open area for swimming.The tank is doing fine but with alot of light pecking,No major battles as of yet. They do alot of good dancing though. Most of these fish have been raised together so they are used to each other. Can I get your opinion and thoughts of keeping these fish together. (W/F with female) Thanks, C.Calderwood.

[Pam Chin]

Hi Kodak,

Although your tank is plenty big enough, it is hard to raise multiple speices of both sexes without having some major fighting. These fish are born to spawn, in the wild they chase off the extra males, but in our tanks there is no place for the subdominate males to go. Remember it is the female that picks the male, and often the females are picking the wrong species in these types of situations. You are susceptible to crosses in this setup. And that is why I think it is better to keep only males, as when there are no females to fight over, they just find their rock or territory and show their colors, hoping a female might happen along as she would in the wild.

The other problem is that the majority of the fish you have chosen like to occupy the same area of the tank. So while your tank may be large, if they are all hanging out in the top, no one is taking advantage of the rest of the space. I think it is best to pick species that occupy different areas of the tank, rather than the same. Once the Champsochromis get up to size, your upper portion of the tank is going to be quite crowded.

You'll just have to keep an eye on them, and since you know your tank better than anyone else, you should notice if anyone is getting trashed. If they are you will need to remove them. You do have a high possibility of crosses and remember crossing is a major no no in the hobby.